Research roundup November 2012

Top
billing goes to Kyle Brown, who has published a study in Addiction showing that graphic images (e.g., diseased lungs) on cigarette
packets can capture the attention of cigarette smokers, but only when the
pictures are presented alongside written health warnings (e.g., ‘SMOKING
KILLS’). This study builds on previous studies that have investigated attention
to health warnings on cigarettes. The present results are important because
they suggest that graphic images do have an impact on smokers, but they must be
presented alongside written warnings in order to have the biggest effect.

Abi
Rose’s paper in Alcoholism:
Clinical and Experimental Research sheds
some light on the alcohol ‘priming’ effect. We know that consumption of one or
two alcoholic drinks can increase the desire to drink more, as anybody who has
found themselves staying in the pub for ‘just one more’ on a weekday evening
can confirm. In this paper, the research team investigated whether alcohol
priming occurred because of the pharmacological effects of alcohol, or because
of beliefs about the effects of alcohol (expectancies), and whether the
relative importance of pharmacological versus expectancy effects would shift
depending on how many drinks had been consumed. The results showed that the
pharmacological effects of alcohol were more important determinants of alcohol
priming after consumption of the first few drinks, but expectancy effects
became more important as more drinks were consumed. The study highlights how
both the ‘imagined’ and the pharmacological effects of alcohol play important
roles in the alcohol priming effect.

Andy
Jones’ latest study, published in Experimental and
Clinical Psychopharmacology, investigated whether heavy drinkers could be
trained to inhibit their behaviour in the presence of alcohol-related pictures,
and if this ‘inhibition training’ would lead to a reduction in their alcohol
consumption. Participants performed a computer task in which they had to
categorise alcohol-related and neutral pictures by pressing keys as quickly as
they could. On some trials, a tone was played while participants were preparing
to respond and this served as a signal to ‘stop’, or inhibit responding. In one
group of people, the tone consistently appeared at the same time as alcohol
pictures: the intention was to train these people to inhibit their responding
whenever they saw an alcohol picture. In
control groups, the tone was not paired with the alcohol pictures. Immediately
after participants had completed the task, they were able to drink some beer. The
results showed that participants who had been trained to inhibit their
behaviour in the presence of alcohol cues showed reduced beer consumption in
the laboratory, compared to the control groups. It is possible that multiple
sessions of this type of inhibition training might help people to reduce their
drinking, if they are motivated to cut down. We have recently been awarded a
grant from the Medical Research Council that will fund additional follow-up
studies.

Finally,
Matt Field and his colleagues at the University of Southampton studied
attentional biases in alcohol-dependent patients, in a paper published in Psychology of
Addictive Behaviors. In this study, patients showed attentional
bias for alcohol cues, but only if their craving was high at the time of
testing. In fact, if their craving was low, they looked away from alcohol cues
(attentional avoidance). This study clarifies our understanding of the
relationship between craving and attentional bias among patients in treatment,
and it helps to explain why patients in treatment seem to avoid looking at
alcohol-related cues.

Andy Jones and Matt Field contributed a ‘pop
science’ article on the link between cannabis use and depression for the
Charlie Waller Memorial Trust newsletter, available here.

Abi Rose will give a public lecture for Café
Scientifique, where she will discuss
‘One is alright, two is too many, three is not enough. Understanding why we
drink the way we do’. The event is free, you just turn up on the night. Hope
Street Hotel, Hope Street, Liverpool, Tuesday 11th December from 7:30pm.

Paul Christiansen and Abi Rose will be talking
about the effects of alcohol on language on Radio 4’s ‘Word of Mouth’ programme – to be aired on 18th December.

We are pleased to welcome Pawel Jedras, who was
awarded a PhD studentship from the University of Liverpool to study the effects
of reward anticipation on attentional biases for motivational stimuli.

Finally, we say goodbye and good luck to Kyle
Brown whose research funding at Liverpool has finished. Kyle will soon start a new
postdoc position in Cambridge.

Thanks for reading! We are always on the lookout
for good research collaborators and potential PhD students - please
contact me (mfield@liv.ac.uk).